Tuesday, 3 November 2015

A former prison officer has been
jailed for 12 months after admitting selling stories about singer George
Michael to the Sun newspaper for £2,150.

Amanda Watts, 43, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, pleaded guilty in September to misconduct in public office.
She revealed details of Michael's time in Highpoint South Prison, which led to five stories in the Sun.
An Old Bailey judge said her job had demanded "loyalty and discretion", but she had set a "bad example".
Watts
was arrested under Operation Elveden, a Metropolitan Police
investigation into alleged inappropriate payments by journalists to
police and other public officials.

Michael was jailed for eight weeks in September 2010 for crashing his Range Rover while under the influence of cannabis.
He spent the last part of his sentence at HMP Highpoint South, the category C prison in Suffolk where Watts worked.

'Fragile state'

Judge
John Bevan QC said her offence had been aggravated because she had
handed over information about a private prison visit by a friend of the
singer, who was "famous for being a flawed idol".
She
also provided the Sun with a sketch of the singer's room, indicating a
large tree outside the perimeter of the jail where a photographer was
subsequently found to be lurking.
Det Ch Supt Gordon Briggs, the
officer in charge of Operation Elveden, said: "Watts sold confidential
information, which she had gained through the course of her job, to a
newspaper.
"When public officials behave in this way and breach
the trust and confidence placed in them, they undermine the trust placed
in public servants to act with honesty and integrity."
Earlier,
in mitigation, Watts's lawyer Stephen Dyble argued she should receive a
suspended sentence as she was in a "fragile state" and suffered from
chronic autoimmune disease, lupus.
He said she had left the prison
service in 2012 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after
being hit in the face by a urine and faeces "bomb" thrown by an inmate.
Mr
Dyble said the money from the Sun was not spent on "the high life", but
instead helped her husband pay legal fees as he attempted to get access
to his children.
Watts accepted she had breached Michael's
confidentiality and that despite his "fall from grace", he was still
entitled to privacy, her lawyer added.
She was also ordered to pay £800 in costs and comply with a confiscation order of £2,999.